Our adventure basically started in Ohio where we bought our travel trailer, but we missed seeing the Ohio capitol so we made our way back to the city of Columbus. Before we got there however we made a stop back at our first camp in Amish country.
We made it over to the little town of Sugarcreek where they have the world’s largest cuckoo clock.
It was something our daughter really wanted to see, there is a great little museum across the street that we got to check out too.
The Alpine museum is free, but does accept donations (it is so cool you will want to make one!).
In the museum you will find the main floor has several rooms set up that show the life of the Amish. A kitchen, a woodworking shop, and a printing office are just a few of the interesting things you will see.
On the second floor and in the basement there are many old antiques. There are way too many neat things to list them all, but some that we enjoyed were the restored fire fighting equipment, an old TV set from the 1940’s, and an old lawnmower that resembled a set of hair clippers.
At the end of our exploration of the museum the lady at the desk let the kids try their hand at the alpine horns.
It was so funny watching them blow into these horns. We were all amazed that the youngest seemed to have the hang of it right away. We love these little museums because there is so much to learn from them and we always see or try something new.
Columbus Ohio is a beautiful capital city.
The capitol building does not have much green space around it, but not far from it is a lovely park near the river where we were able to sit and eat our lunch. There are several nice statues on the grounds depicting important people to the state. This building is very official looking with very straight lines and a cupola instead of a dome. It is impressive.
A volunteer was on hand to give us a tour, he had worked in the building for many years so he had some great information to share. Inside the rotunda when you look up you will find that there is a dome after all, which I found to be a very cool effect because it does not appear to be domed on the outside. The floor in this area was also very interesting, the tiles in the center had a nice story behind them, but our guide said there was never any evidence to back it up, we really liked the tile work though which had a cool effect.
There were many paintings and statues throughout the Ohio capitol, but my favorites were the two in each hall off the rotunda.
One was of Thomas Edison with depictions of him throughout his life and the other was of the Wright Brothers and their timeline of flight. After we finished our tour of this lovely building we headed over to the COSI which was only a short walk away, feel free to watch us exploring it in this video. Let us know of any cool museums you have visited or a capitol building you really like in the comments section and thanks for reading!
Here are some links and more pictures for the places we talked about:
The Ohio State House
http://www.ohiostatehouse.org/visit/guided-tours
Alpine Hills Historical Museum
The World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock
The alpine horn looks so fun!!! Your youngest definitely has a strong diaphragm hahaa. The cuckoo clock is super cute too. I might just have to add this to my bucket list!
When my daughter first spotted the sign for the worlds largest cuckoo clock I didn’t think it would be so great. After a year though, we finally made it back and I had promised her we would visit it. I am a stickler for keeping a promise, so we went. I guess she is smarter than me because it was amazing and I am glad we went.
I think it’s so cool when you find such interesting museums in small towns. Unexpected surprises like that are what make traveling so wonderful. An I would totally love to try the alpine horns.
Small towns are great and we love them. Big cities have their perks, but small town America is the best.
I just love historic tours – one gets to know some exiting details about the place. The guide must be a bit enterntaining, too. Glad you liked your experience!
Sugarcreek sounds like such a cute town! And the Alpine museum does sound so interesting – what a great chance to for the kids to get to know a different culture living in the US and gain some insight into the lives of the Amish.
That’s why we try to just teach about what is going on locally. Each place has it’s own lesson, if we just stop to learn it.
It’s always interesting to visit a museum. You never know what awaits you. I’m sure you discovered some new things which are educational and entertaining at the same time like some bits of history, the cuckoo clock and that alpine horns. Fun way to learn particularly for the kids.
The kids look like they had a lot of fun trying out the alpine horns. Going to the capitol building and taking in all the history is a great way to have fun while the kids (adults too) learn.
The States are full of surprises! I had no idea that there is such a huge cuckoo clock in Ohio. And these horns look ginormous as well!
Who would have thought one would find the world’s biggest cuckoo clock in a small US town called Sugarcreek and not somewhere in the Black Forest in Germany? I would love to visit the Alpine Hills Historical Museum.
Yeah, it’s amazing what we find traveling around. Our daughter saw the sign for the clock when we first started our adventure, but we were not able to see it. More than a year later, we finally had circled back around and made it to the clock again.
Who knew the world’s largest cukoo clock is in Ohio? I never would’ve guessed. I keep hearing great things about Columbus though — namely for food, coffee, and beer.
Nice historic tour. Seems engrossing for the kids too. Im sure my four year old would love this sometime!